st: using weights with -svy- commands

[Jeph Herrin <stata@spandrel.net>]

All,

This seems like a question that has been asked & answered before, but I 
can't find it in the archives.

I have data which was was collected using a stratified survey design 
(NHANES, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm) which I have been analyzing 
using -svy- commands.

However, for a random subset of survey respondents, additional data is 
collected - up to 10080 motion counts collected each minute for up to 7 
days. I have summarized these motion counts various ways for each 
respondent, but since not all respondents have the same reporting 
period, there is varying degrees of precision - some respondents have 
only a few thousand counts, some have the full 10k - and most 
importantly, I have found that the reporting period is associated with 
some of my key independent variables (in particular, overweight children 
have shorter reporting periods than normal weight children). So I want 
to incorporate the different precision of the summary outcome into my 
regression models.

In most linear regression models I would achieve this by weighting each 
observation by the inverse of the variance of the dependent variable 
measurement using -aweights-. However, -svy reg - does not support weights.

My questions are all due to the fact that I am a casual user of complex 
survey data. Is this because of a theoretical restriction due to the 
complex designs? Or is it a mechanical problem that I can somehow 
circumvent? Or is it possible with Stata, only I am overlooking the 
solution?

thanks,
Jeph
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